The Coronation Street actor Bill Roache has been charged with two counts of rape involving a 15-year-old girl in the 1960s, the Crown Prosecution Service has said.

Roache, 81, who plays Ken Barlow in the ITV1 soap, was arrested on suspicion of two counts of rape involving the girl in 1967. Detectives searched the actor's house in Wilmslow, Cheshire, and took him to be interviewed at an undisclosed police station in Lancashire.

Nazir Afzal, chief crown prosecutor for the north-west, said: "We have carefully considered all the evidence gathered by Lancashire police in relation to William Roache following allegations of rape.

"We have been reviewing evidence and providing early investigative advice to Lancashire police since 1 March 2013.

"Having completed our review, we have concluded that there is sufficient evidence and it is in the public interest for Mr Roache to be charged with two offences of rape relating to a girl, aged 15, in 1967."

Roache will appear at Preston magistrates' court on 14 May. His lawyer said he would make a statement on Friday morning.

In a statement, Lancashire constabulary said the offences were alleged to have been committed in Haslingden, north of Manchester, between April and July 1967 and involved a girl then aged 15. "We take all allegations of sexual abuse extremely seriously and would encourage people with any information about sexual abuse, or anyone who has been a victim of sexual abuse, to come forward and report their concerns confident in the knowledge they will be investigated appropriately and with sensitivity," the force said.

Roache is the longest-serving cast member on Coronation Street, having appeared in its first episode on 9 December 1960.

It is understood that Roache will not be appearing on the soap in the near future following his arrest, posing a complex challenge for producers to edit his character out of several current storylines.

An ITV spokesman said: "Given that a police investigation is under way, it would not be appropriate for us to comment." In March, Roache apologised after he appeared to suggest victims of sex crimes were being punished for past sins. He told New Zealand's One News TV show that "if you accept that you are pure love, and if you know that you are pure love … these things won't happen to you".

Asked to clarify if that meant "victims bring things on themselves", Roache added: "No, not quite, but and yet I am … everything that happens to us has been a result of what we have been in previous lives."

He later said he was "very sorry for any offence that has been caused as a result of my comments".

Roache's wife, Sara, died in 2009 after more than 30 years of marriage. The couple have two grown-up children.